Technical Abstract:
The effectiveness of the three solvents, hexane, methanol and ethanol were compared for their ability to extract non-polar and polar materials from sawdust from three species of Juniperus (i.e., J. virginianna, J. occidentalis and J. ashei). These species studied represent the junipers with the greatest potential for commercialization. For all three species of juniper, methanol extracted the highest amount of material, followed by ethanol and then hexane. For all solvents, Ashe juniper yielded the highest amounts of extracts followed by eastern red cedar and then western juniper. Gas chromatographic analysis of the extracts revealed significant differences between the species. Western juniper contained the highest levels of cedrol, while Ashe juniper contained the highest levels of thujopsene. There were fewer differences in the sesquiterpene compositions due to solvent used. The bioactivity of these extracts against several species of wood-rot fungi was also investigated.